The present invention relates to a passenger vehicle with longitudinal numbers arranged it its floor region, a spare wheel pan in the rear floor region, a cross member situated in front of the spare wheel pan and a rear axle support. More particularly, the present invention relates to a passenger vehicle in which the foregoing components are connected to one another by two transverse tie bars which are situated at a distance from each other and from the fixing points.
Passenger vehicles of this general design are exemplified by the Mercedes-Benz Model 190. The rearward transverse tie bar of the rear axle support is situated in front, as viewed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, of the body cross-member arranged immediately in front of the spare wheel pan. Side pieces of the rear axle support are supported by their rearward ends on the body cross-member.
The distance of the rear cross-member from the rear of the vehicle is sufficiently short to guarantee adequate transverse stability of the rearward, soft floor region, which is loaded by the spare wheel pan and is also sufficiently large to ensure an adequately long crumple zone in the event of a rear impact. Nevertheless, the cross-member in this arrangement deforms undesirably in relatively severe rear-end collisions.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to lengthen this crumple zone while retaining an adequate transverse reinforcement for the deformable floor region situated behind the cross-member.
The foregoing object has been achieved in accordance with the present invention by arranging the rearward transverse tie bar of the rear axle support with clearance between the body cross-member and the spare wheel pan, and also supporting the side pieces of the rear axle support at their rearward end on respective longitudinal members of the body.
In this presently contemplated embodiment, the body cross-member is provide sufficiently far in front of the spare wheel pan that a free path considerably enlarging the crumple zone is created for the spare wheel in the direction of travel or longitudinal direction of the vehicle. Due to its flexible profile in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, the rearward transverse tie bar of the rear axle support, which is situated in this deformation zone, does not significantly impair the deformability of the crumple zone, despite its position between the spare wheel pan and the body cross-member.
A certain amount of transverse reinforcement of the rear region is simultaneously achieved via the rear axle support in conjunction with the fixing of the rearward ends of the side pieces on the longitudinal members of the body in the region behind the transverse bar, the more so since the transverse tie bar of the rear axle support is located a relatively long way rearwardly in the vehicle longitudinal direction. By virtue of the location of the fixing points for the side pieces, it is also possible to give the fixing points greater overall length which results in a wide support base with low loads on the body in the region of the respective fixing points. This arrangement is particularly advantageous as regards noise, because the rearward fixing points of the side pieces on the body favorably influence the vibrational behavior of the rearward body region.